These two views illustrate much of the difficulty preventing peace in the region.

Read the story about the Israeli Navy's attack Monday on the Dignity, the Free Gaza ship trying to bring medical supplies to Gaza. It's on my other blog, PeaceNewsLinks: http://peacenewslinks.blogspot.com/

Another excellent article by Chris Hedges on the U.S. role and on people who are working to bring balance to our understanding of the conflict:Published on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 by TruthDig.com

Party to Murderby TruthDig.com by Chris Hedges

TruthDig.com editor's note: In light of the recent fighting in Gaza, Truthdig asked Chris Hedges, who covered the Mideast for The New York Times for seven years, to update a previous column [1] on Gaza.

Can anyone who is following the Israeli air attacks on Gaza-the buildings blown to rubble, the children killed on their way to school, the long rows of mutilated corpses, the wailing mothers and wives, the crowds of terrified Palestinians not knowing where to flee, the hospitals so overburdened and out of supplies they cannot treat the wounded, and our studied, callous indifference to this widespread human suffering-wonder why we are hated?

Our self-righteous celebration of ourselves and our supposed virtue is as false as that of Israel. We have become monsters, militarized bullies, heartless and savage. We are a party to human slaughter, a flagrant war crime, and do nothing. We forget that the innocents who suffer and die in Gaza are a reflection of ourselves, of how we might have been should fate and time and geography have made the circumstances of our birth different. We forget that we are all absurd and vulnerable creatures. We all have the capacity to fear and hate and love. "Expose thyself to what wretches feel," King Lear said, entering the mud and straw hovel of Poor Tom, "and show the heavens more just."

Privilege and power, especially military power, is a dangerous narcotic. Violence destroys those who bear the brunt of its force, but also those who try to use it to become gods. Over 350 Palestinians have been killed [2], many of them civilians, and over 1,000 have been wounded since the air attacks began on Saturday. Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister, said Israel is engaged in a "war to the bitter end" against Hamas in Gaza. A war? Israel uses sophisticated attack jets and naval vessels to bomb densely crowded refugee camps and slums, to attack a population that has no air force, no air defense, no navy, no heavy weapons, no artillery units, no mechanized armor, no command and control, no army, and calls it a war. It is not a war. It is murder.

The U.N. special rapporteur [3] for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, former Princeton University law professor Richard Falk, has labeled what Israel is doing to the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza "a crime against humanity." Falk, who is Jewish, has condemned the collective punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza as "a flagrant and massive violation of international humanitarian law as laid down in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention." He has asked for "the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation, and determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law."

Falk's unflinching honesty has enraged Israel. He was banned from entering the country on Dec. 14 during his attempt to visit Gaza and the West Bank.

"After being denied entry I was put in a holding room with about 20 others experiencing entry problems," he said. "At this point I was treated not as a U.N. representative, but as some sort of security threat, subjected to an inch-by-inch body search, and the most meticulous luggage inspection I have ever witnessed. I was separated from my two U.N. companions, who were allowed to enter Israel. At this point I was taken to the airport detention facility a mile or so away, required to put all my bags and cell phone in a room, taken to a locked, tiny room that had five other detainees, smelled of urine and filth, and was an unwelcome invitation to claustrophobia. I spent the next 15 hours so confined, which amounted to a cram course on the miseries of prison life, including dirty sheets, inedible food, and either lights that were too bright or darkness controlled from the guard office."

The foreign press has been, like Falk, barred by Israel from entering Gaza to report on the destruction.

Israel's stated aim of halting homemade rockets fired from Gaza into Israel remains unfulfilled. Gaza militants have fired more than 100 rockets and mortars into Israel, killing four [4] people and wounding nearly two dozen more, since Israel unleashed its air assault. Israel has threatened to launch a ground assault and has called up 6,500 army reservists. It has massed tanks on the Gaza border and declared the area a closed military zone.

The rocket attacks by Hamas are, as Falk points out, also criminal violations of international law. But as Falk notes, "... such Palestinian behavior does not legalize Israel's imposition of a collective punishment of a life- and health-threatening character on the people of Gaza, and should not distract the U.N. or international society from discharging their fundamental moral and legal duty to render protection to the Palestinian people."

"It is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that each day poses the entire 1.5 million Gazans to an unspeakable ordeal, to a struggle to survive in terms of their health," Falk has said of the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza. "This is an increasingly precarious condition. A recent study reports that 46 percent of all Gazan children suffer from acute anemia. There are reports that the sonic booms associated with Israeli overflights have caused widespread deafness, especially among children. Gazan children need thousands of hearing aids. Malnutrition is extremely high in a number of different dimensions and affects 75 percent of Gazans. There are widespread mental disorders, especially among young people without the will to live. Over 50 percent of Gazan children under the age of 12 have been found to have no will to live."

Before the air assaults, Gaza spent 12 hours a day without power, which can be a death sentence to the severely ill in hospitals. Most of Gaza is now without power. There are few drugs and little medicine, including no cancer or cystic fibrosis medication. Hospitals have generators but often lack fuel. Medical equipment, including one of Gaza's three CT scanners, has been destroyed by power surges and fluctuations. Medical staff cannot control the temperature of incubators for newborns. And Israel has revoked most exit visas, meaning some of those who need specialized care, including cancer patients and those in need of kidney dialysis, have died. Of the 230 Gazans estimated to have died last year because they were denied proper medical care, several spent their final hours at Israeli crossing points where they were refused entry into Israel. The statistics gathered on children-half of Gaza's population is under the age of 17-are increasingly grim. About 45 percent of children in Gaza have iron deficiency from a lack of fruit and vegetables, and 18 percent have stunted growth.

"It is macabre," Falk said of the blockade. "I don't know of anything that exactly fits this situation. People have been referring to the Warsaw ghetto as the nearest analog in modern times."

"There is no structure of an occupation that endured for decades and involved this kind of oppressive circumstances," the rapporteur added. "The magnitude, the deliberateness, the violations of international humanitarian law, the impact on the health, lives and survival and the overall conditions warrant the characterization of a crime against humanity. This occupation is the direct intention by the Israeli military and civilian authorities. They are responsible and should be held accountable."

The point of the Israeli attack, ostensibly, is to break Hamas, the radical Islamic group that was elected to power in 2007. But Hamas has repeatedly proposed long-term truces with Israel and offered to negotiate a permanent truce. During the last cease-fire, established through Egyptian intermediaries in July, Hamas upheld the truce although Israel refused to ease the blockade. It was Israel that, on Nov. 4, initiated an armed attack [5] that violated the truce and killed six Palestinians. It was only then that Hamas resumed firing rockets at Israel.

"This is a crime of survival," Falk said of the rocket attacks by Palestinians. "Israel has put the Gazans in a set of circumstances where they either have to accept whatever is imposed on them or resist in any way available to them. That is a horrible dilemma to impose upon a people. This does not alleviate the Palestinians, and Gazans in particular, for accountability for doing these acts involving rocket fire, but it also imposes some responsibility on Israel for creating these circumstances."

Israel seeks to break the will of the Palestinians to resist. The Israeli government has demonstrated little interest in diplomacy or a peaceful solution. The rapid expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank is an effort to thwart the possibility of a two-state solution by gobbling up vast tracts of Palestinian real estate. Israel also appears to want to thrust the impoverished Gaza Strip onto Egypt. Dozens of tunnels had been the principal means for food and goods, connecting Gaza to Egypt. Israel had permitted the tunnels to operate, most likely as part of an effort to further cut Gaza off from Israel. This ended, however, on Sunday when Israeli fighter jets bombed over 40 tunnels along Gaza's border with Egypt. The Israeli military said that the tunnels, on the Gaza side of the border, were used for smuggling weapons, explosives and fugitives. Egypt has sealed its border and refused to let distraught Palestinians enter its territory.

"Israel, all along, has not been prepared to enter into diplomatic process that gives the Palestinians a viable state," Falk said. "They [the Israelis] feel time is on their side. They feel they can create enough facts on the ground so people will come to the conclusion a viable state cannot emerge."

The use of terror and hunger to break a hostile population is one of the oldest forms of warfare. I watched the Bosnian Serbs employ the same tactic in Sarajevo. Those who orchestrate such sieges do not grasp the terrible rage born of long humiliation, indiscriminate violence and abuse. A father or a mother whose child dies because of a lack of vaccines or proper medical care does not forget. A boy whose ill grandmother dies while detained at an Israel checkpoint does not forget. A family that loses a child in an airstrike does not forget. All who endure humiliation, abuse and the murder of family members do not forget. This rage becomes a virus within those who, eventually, stumble out into the daylight. Is it any wonder that 71 percent of children interviewed at a school in Gaza recently said they wanted to be a "martyr"?

Chris Hedges writes a regular column for Truthdig.com [6]. Hedges graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He is the author of "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. [7]"

Monday, December 29, 2008

This morning I search the photos from Gaza and read the news stories, wondering how the people I met this summer and fall are doing now, as the violence escalates. One photo was taken at the Qalandia checkpoint, where we got off our tour bus and walked through on foot in June. It's the checkpoint everyone goes through to get from Jerusalem to Ramallah, the capitol of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The checkpoint is staffed by Israeli soldiers, who monitor everyone going and coming. The PA also has soldiers at the checkpoint, but it is clear that the Israeli soldiers are the ones in control. Apparently this checkpoint has become a hotspot for protests against Israel's attacks on Gaza. The photo appears on the New York Times web site, along with many others. It was taken by Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press, and is captioned: Palestinian women flee during clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians, at the Kalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem. The Israeli military warned that "This operation will be continued, expanded and intensified as much as will be required."

These women are running, covering their ears as the gunfire surrounds them, through the area where we walked in June. Even then it was a somber, scary place. One of our group accidently left his passport on the bus and we had a few moments of panic as we retraced our steps to get the passport. The blue American book, however, worked its magic - no one wants to cause an international incident and endanger their relationship with the U.S - and his passport was retrieved and he passed throught the checkpoint without much hassle at all.

While we played out the drama of the lost American passport, our Palestinian tour guide waited in the long line to go through the checkpoint - when, in spite of all our bumbling, we finally got through, he was still waiting.....in the line reserved for the Palestinians (who pass through this checkpoint regularly).

I checked the web site of Mohammad Omer - a young man who, since he was a hight school student in 2001, has documented daily life in Gaza (http://www.rafahtoday.org/). There are no new photos on the site, but looking once again at his work, I'm reminded that while we are shocked by what is happening in Gaza this weekend, this violence is not new for the residents of Gaza. They have been enduring bulldozing of their houses, shootings of their fathers and children and the less remarkable but daily violence - a lack of medical supplies, shortages of chlorine to make the water safe to drink, few schoolbooks for the children and imprisonment in their community - only rarely and in extreme circumstances are Gaza residents permitted to leave the area. So, they are trapped in their city without life's necessities, like oil for heating and cooking and electricity to light their homes. There is a shortage of food, and even the U.N. relief agency in Gaza is currently unable to provide emergency food for the community. While we take note of the violence this weekend, they have been experiencing this violence for sixty years, going about their daily lives, teaching their children, cooking whatever food they can find when fuel is available, waiting for a resolution to the conflict. This photo, too, is from the NYTimes web site, taken by Majed Hamdan/Associated Press, captioned: Palestinian rescue workers carried a wounded prisoner amidst the rubble of the main security compound and prison in Gaza City known as the Saraya. Israeli aircraft pounded Gaza for a second day on Sunday, increasing the death toll to nearly 300.See more photos: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/12/28/world/20081228MIDEAST2_index.html

Yesterday, December 28, was the commemoration of the Holy Innocents, the first martyrs, the babies slaughtered by Herod as he tried to save himself from his fears of a usurper-king. Today, please hold in your prayers the people of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, their pastor Mitri Raheb and his family, wife Najwa, and daughters Dana and Tala; Bishop Mounib Younan and the other congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land - in Ramallah, Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, Jerusalem and Amman, Jordan; along with all the Palestinians who are suffering under the occupation of Israeli soldiers, especially those enduring the attacks in Gaza.

On Christmas Eve we heard, "In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus..." Today, decrees from the world's powerful are still causing suffering and death. Let us ponder our role in this suffering and pray for the courage to raise our voices in protest. Let OUR voices be "heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more." (Matt. 2.18).

There will be a vigil on the steps of the State Capitol in Denver tomorrow night, December 30, 5:00 pm, to express our solidarity with the people of Gaza; join in the vigil or make your own prayers for the Holy Innocents who are still being killed even today.

Another article by Sara Roy, to be published January 1 in the London Review of Books - summarizes the recent history of the blockade of Gaza and the roles of the U.S., Israel, the U.N. and others in the failure of the peace process:http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/print/roy_01_.html

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

The angel said to her….“For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord…”

Mary’s simple declaration of trust in God so vividly captures the spirit I have seen in those who have chosen to remain in Palestine and nonviolently resist the Israeli military occupation of their land. Trusting that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…” is how they get through each day with dignity and hope. They say, with Mary, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.”

The angel says to them, “Do not be afraid…for you have found favor with God.” And they believe the promise. When I hear these words, I think of the day we met the mayor of Ein Hod, Muhammed Abu al-Haija, who told us about his family’s story of terror and rebirth. He and his family and all of the other residents fled this village in 1948, during the Arab-Israeli war.

When the war ended, the Israel authorities did not permit them to return to the village, so, rather than go to the Jenin refugee camp, Muhammed al-Haija’s grandfather and 35 other families trekked up the hill to their farmland and lived in their olive groves and the fields where they grazed their sheep. They built houses to live in, but, because the new village at the top of the hill was “unrecognized” by the Israeli authorities, they could not get access to electricity or water. The Israelis bulldozed some of their homes because they were built without permits. Even though the Arab villagers were Israeli citizens and paid taxes, the Israeli government would not build a road to their village because it was not on the map. When they petitioned the government for recognition, they were told that it was too small, their land was classified “agricultural” and that they could not build there; they were called “squatters.” Finally, after many years spent in Israeli government offices, contacting officials, organizing with other unrecognized villages and holding protests in Jerusalem, upper Ein Hod was finally recognized in 1992, and their village address could be listed on their Israeli identity cards.

It took fifteen more years, but in 2007, they were finally connected to the electric grid. They built a kindergarten and an elementary school. And they built a road with money they withheld from their taxes, so that their children could ride the bus to the high school in Haifa. And finally they were permitted to install a water system. They still cannot use their cemetery, but they have built a new one at the top of the hill.

The ultimate insult was when Iaraelis “discovered” the “abandoned” village of Ein Hod at the bottom of the hill. Artists moved into the empty buildings, “squatting” on their land, even turning their mosque into a restaurant for tourists. Today the artists paint and tourists drink coffee under the beautiful olive trees which were planted by the Arab villagers hundreds of years ago.

With the electricity, Mayor al-Haija has built his own restaurant in the village at the top of the hill. It has a patio with beautiful gardens and ancient olive trees and people like our tour group come there for delicious hummus and roast lamb. Mayor al-Haija told us that he worked hard for many years to get recognition for his village and then fighting for electricity, water and roads. Now he is tired and he says it is up to the next generation. Only two houses currently have electricity—the others await permits. Their houses can be bulldozed at any time because they still do not have permits to build. The photo shows the new restaurant in New Ein Hod.

--One hundred other Arab villages till wait for recognition.

O Lord our God, you have chosen us and made us your own. Help us to say, with Mary, “I am the servant of my God. I live to do your will.” Then lead us, together in this community, to wisely discern where God is calling us to minister, so that we may be healers of the wounds of the world. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

It is a challenge for Palestinian Christians, grounded in Holy Scripture, to hear people cite the Bible as the authority for taking their land. Many of these families can trace their ancestry back generations, finding themselves in the stories in Acts about the early church. It might seem easier to reject the Bible and turn to political arguments.

But God speaks loudly to the Palestinians through the occupation, and the Palestinians turn to the stories of their faith for sustenance and strength. These same words have a far different message in their Palestinian context. Living under occupation, Bishop Mounib Younan, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and Pastor Mitri Raheb, of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, have become excellent and practiced theologians, interpreting these texts from the perspective of people who are oppressed.

Lutherans in the Holy Land today bear this good news, giving God the glory for the strength God provides for them. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land is made up of six congregations, four in the occupied West Bank—in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour; one in Jerusalem; and one in Amman, Jordan, intent on bringing hope to their communities, even when their people often feel hopeless.

Each of these congregations has a school, because, as Pastor Mitri says, education is the key to achieving freedom and equal rights and creating a just and flourishing society. These schools, attended by both Muslim and Christian children, teach understanding and respect for other cultures. They nurture a curiosity about the world, a thirst for learning and creative problem-solving. The teachers encourage their students to resist the occupation by learning their own Palestinian culture, creating art and music that celebrates who they are and caring for their bodies with exercise.

As I walked into the Wellness Center in Bethlehem, Hamid grinned and practiced his English, saying “Hello, how are you?” When he saw my camera he made faces and jumped about, posing for a picture. His two friends walked in with their mothers for their swim lesson and he got them to mug for the camera too. I took several pictures, showed them to the boys and they giggled with excitement and posed some more. Although his English is limited, Hamid is curious about the bigger world. He wants to make friends with strangers. He has been raised to welcome the other, to approach the other without fear. He is the legacy of the Lutheran churches’ educational philosophy. The photo shows Hamid and his friends hamming it up for the camera.

Some in Israel claim election—that Israel is God’s chosen people by virtue of their ethnicity. Pastor Mitri has written, however, that God’s election is “a promise to the weak, encouragement to the discouraged and consolation to the desperate….Election is not a special privilege, It is much more a call to service, above all a service ‘to the other.’” (I Am a Palestinian Christian, Fortress Press, 1995, p 66) He cites Torah where Abraham is blessed, not for his own benefit or for the amassing of wealth, but so that “all families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12.3). God’s election is not for personal or national gain, but for the benefit of others. The formative story of Israel is the Exodus, the tale of a people oppressed and enslaved by a powerful nation, rescued by God. Palestinians today see themselves as the Israelites, deprived of their freedom by a strong military power, bent on imprisoning them. God is for them their savior, strengthening them for God’s work in the world.

—For what work is God is strengthening us?

O Lord our God, you have chosen us and made us your own. In our baptism you have claimed us. As you strengthen us daily for your work in the world, help us to discern your will and give us the courage to go out and do that work in our own community. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Monday, December 22, 2008

And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more…

Jewish Zionists cite passages like this one to support their claim to the land of Israel. The most extreme want to see all Palestinians removed, so that the Jews, God’s chosen people, have exclusive possession of the land.

Everyone needs a homeland—a place where they feel safe, where they can protect their homes and raise their children in safety. This has been the stated aim of Israel as they set about building the security wall; they have said they want to protect their settlements from terrorists and to keep the suicide bombers out. In a post-holocaust world, this has seemed understandable to Europeans and Americans, supported by us because of our guilt over they way we stood by while 6 million Jews were herded into ghettos, loaded onto trains, transported to camps and slaughtered. So what is wrong with wanting to protect your family?

Hannah, a hite-haired Jewish grandmother and a volunteer with Machsom Watch, told us that the occupation of Palestinian lands, the security wall and the inhumane treatment of Palestinians at the checkpoints is eating away at the core values of the Jewish people. It is creating a generation of young people numbed to human suffering by their service in the Israeli Army, and it is destroying the fabric of Jewish society. The occupation corrupts and if she does not speak up, her grandchildren will pay the price. Hannah and the other Israeli 500 women who volunteer for Machsom Watch believe that the wall and the checkpoints are not making Israelis safer. Instead it is transforming them into a people who regard the Palestinians as less than human. They are being trained to hate the Palestinians and they are becoming hardened, accepting injustice as the price to be paid for their safety.

The photo shows resistance to the occupation: Graffiti on the Israeli security wall at Abu Dis.

So Hannah spends her days monitoring the checkpoints and writing reports of what she has seen; the women monitor forty checkpoints in Jerusalem and the West Bank. There is nothing in writing—no rules—about how the checkpoints are run. It is up to the individual soldier under the orders of the commander. The soldier may ask for any sort of documentation. Because of international pressure, soldiers no longer beat people at the checkpoints, but they make travel so difficult that many Palestinians simply give up, quit their jobs and leave the country.

Hannah worked with a young Palestinian family whose son needed treatment for cancer in his eye. His parents and his grandmother had not been able to get permits to travel with him for the medical treatment. When they got permission, it was for only for one day, not enough time for the treatment. When they finally got a four-day permit the letter was in Hebrew, which they do not speak. The faxed permit was not good enough for the soldier, who required an original, so Hannah called the commanders of each of the checkpoints they needed to pass and the commanders called ahead to facilitate their passage. She told us this happens every day.

Another time she helped a milkman who had permits for himself and his truck, but he was stopped because, “The milk does not have a permit.” Another man was traveling back from the hospital where he had had his leg amputated. He wanted to bring the leg with him so that it could be buried with him according to Muslim tradition. He spent ten hours at the checkpoint before he was permitted to leave with the leg.

When I asked how she happened to become involved in her work, Hannah told us that she could not do this work until she became a widow. Her husband would not have approved and her children do not support her in this work. But for her, living in peace requires justice for Palestinians.

O Lord our God, you desire peace and safety for all of us—your people. Like Israel, may we, too, be a blessing to all the nations of the world. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

Here we are with that Wild Man John again, as he travels through the dry, barren wilderness, dressed in animal skins, shouting to anyone who would listen, pointing to the Messiah, testifying to the light. The elders of the synagogue asked him, “Who are you?” And he replied, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.” ……John, the announcer, pointing to the Messiah of God, proclaiming God’s good news to the people.

The land where John lived and preached, east of Jerusalem, between the city and the Jordan River, doesn’t look like much—no water to be seen, only rock and dirt and a few tiny, scruffy, dried-out plants. Except for the oasis of Jericho, it’s pretty much only Bedouin who live here, eking out a hard living with their goats and perhaps selling their weaving in the markets. Hard to imagine anyone would fight for this bleak, unfruitful land.

This desolate land, however, is much prized. On the color-coded map drawn up for the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Arab villages and farmlands are tan; the Jewish settlements are blue. Since 1948 when the State of Israel was established, this land has become more blue each year. As the blue areas become larger and larger, the brown areas shrink. In spite of United Nations resolutions, the Fourth Geneva Convention’s laws governing military occupation of lands, and pressure on Israel to cease building settlements in Palestinian areas, new settlements are being built today. Even as Palestinian homes are being demolished.

When we met Angela at our hotel, she looked like she could be channeling John the Baptist. Dressed in a long black tunic and pants, short hair with a long “rat tale” braid (as my junior high son prized it in the 80s), broad-brimmed straw hat and gestures much larger than her 5’3” frame, she attracted attention and mesmerized us as she told us about the struggle for the land and showed us demolished Arab houses and new construction expanding Israeli settlements. Angela is a tour guide with ICAHD, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. She stood in the front of our bus as she took us on a tour of East Jerusalem—she showed us what the tan and blue areas of the Oslo map look like from the ground. In the past year, since the November, 2007, Annapolis peace conference, 10,000 new housing units have been built on Palestinian lands. Over the past 40 years, 10,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished. The demolished house in the picture is in Abu Dis, near East Jerusalem.

She took us to Silwan, the East Jerusalem Arab neighborhood, so close to the Old City that it is now prized real estate for Jews who want to live nearby. A new development, Nof Zion, is being promoted, mainly to American Jews, who may not have seen the site and are less likely to realize that it is right in the middle of an Arab neighborhood, perched on the hillside above the town. The “Swiss cheese” pattern of the settlements, makes for a Bantustan-type of political map, the West Bank divided into so many small areas—Israeli and Palestinian—that there is little left to create a state of Palestine. The two-state solution is seems more and more impossible.

Angela is a testimony of hope—evidence that there are Israelis who are appalled by their government’s treatment of the Palestinians. These volunteers take visitors on tours; they rebuild bulldozed homes; and they document and publicize Israeli takeover of Palestinian lands. Israeli peace groups like ICAHD testify to the light—giving hope to Palestinians helplessly watching their country being carved up.

O Lord our God, your people are being made homeless, while the world watches or averts their eyes. Protect those who stand up in protest and who work to rebuild destroyed communities. Help us to find ways to join in this healing work. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Augusta Victoria Hospital sits like its namesake queen, crowning the Mount of Olives, the highest hill in Jerusalem. The magnificent building was built as a hospice and rest home by Kaiser Wilhelm in 1910, and named it for his wife. In the 1920s-40s it served as R&R for British soldiers. In 1948, after the British left, as 750,000 Palestinians were turned out of their homes, these refugees fled to East Jerusalem and Jordan (East Jerusalem was part of Jordan at that time). They had no medical care, so the facility was taken over by the Red Cross to serve as a hospital for them. In 1950 the hospital came under the administration of the Lutheran World Federation and today still serves primarily refugees and other Palestinians who otherwise do not have access to adequate medical care. Augusta Victoria is the only option for Palestinians needing certain kinds of care, like kidney dialysis and cancer treatment. The hospital exists to assure the right to health care for Palestinians. Because of the security wall, many Palestinians have difficulty getting to the hospital, even though it is in Palestinian East Jerusalem. The staff works to get travel permits for patients and their families, as well as for employees. Their buses pick up patients from Ramallah, Hebron and Bethany.

Standing in the trees at the top of the hill behind the hospital, we looked out over the valley to the east of Jerusalem. This Arab area is dotted with Israeli settlements, construction cranes visible on the horizon. 85% of the land these settlements are built on was obtained illegally from Palestinians, including the settlement of Maale Addumim, home to 40,000 Israelis and growing.

Housing is a huge problem for Palestinians. They cannot build, even on their own land, until they have a permit. But permits are routinely denied Palestinians, so they build illegally and hope the bulldozers will not come to destroy their homes. Just over the edge of the hill behind the hospital we saw one such demolished home. Two weeks earlier, soldiers had arrived at breakfast time, about 8 am, and told the family their home would be destroyed. They had two hours to gather up what they could, and at 10 am the bulldozers came and leveled the home. On November 5, four more Palestinian homes and a banquet hall were demolished in East Jerusalem. Thousands of homes are slated for demolition, the families living in uncertainty, not knowing when the soldiers will knock on their door.

Some of these families live in very crowded conditions, causing many Palestinian Christian families to emigrate. Seven members of the Hadawar family, members of the Lutheran church in Jerusalem, live in a tiny apartment in the Old City. Three generations share a bedroom, while around the corner from their cramped home, plans have been approved for an Israeli settlement that will be built in the Muslim Quarter.

In the search for peace between Palestinians and Israelis, and between Jews, Christians and Muslims, it is important to strengthen the Christian presence in the Holy Land and to maintain Jerusalem as a city of shared faiths and a model of peace, understanding, tolerance and reconciliation. Christians, providing schools and social service agencies and encouraging dialogue among religious groups, are a bridge between fundamentalist movements within Islam and Judaism, fostering mutual understanding and contributing to peacemaking efforts.

In cooperation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land, the Lutheran World Federation is building housing on their land for Palestinian Christian families—the Mount of Olives Housing Project—which will add 84 units of housing for Palestinians in East Jerusalem. This work is being done with the help of your offerings, which support the Lutheran World Federation.

O Lord our God, your church struggles to bring the good news of freedom and liberty to those imprisoned. Through our generous gifts strengthen your church for your work of liberation. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Monday, December 15, 2008

….the Lord has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners….

Everywhere we went in the Holy Land, as we met with Israeli and Palestinian peace groups and with Lutherans working to create a better life for Palestinians, we were welcomed and greeted with smiles as our hosts told us how much our visit meant to them. They wanted to tell us their stories and they urged us to tell these stories when we at home. The presence of U.S. citizens who care about their suffering is the gospel. It is good news to Muslims, Jews and Christians. Our visit gave them hope.

One thing we don’t understand in the United States is how much America influences events on the other side of the world. When Palestinian homes are bulldozed, American-made Caterpillars do the work. When Israeli settlements are built illegally on occupied Palestinian land, donations from American and European philanthropists finance the building, making these settlements affordable and attractive for young families. When Israeli soldiers fire tear gas or rubber bullets at schoolchildren protesting the occupation, they often use American-made weapons. Our attention to injustice can make the world a safer place.

As our bus wended its way to Jayyous, through valleys and up hills and down, it seemed like the road would never end. What could have been a 15-minute drive took us 45 minutes as we drove around the security wall, slithering like a snake across the rocky hills, protecting the Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land along the western edge of the West Bank.

When we finally got to Jayyous, our host, Abdul Latif, who works as a hydrologist, welcomed us and took us up to the roof of the community center, where he showed us the wall. Here in Jayyous, the wall is actually a road, flanked by rolls of barbed wire and a dirt strip on each side. When this wall/road was built, it separated the villagers from their farmlands. So, every day the farmers leave the village at the top of the hill and go through an Israeli checkpoint to get to their olive groves.

Our bus took us to the checkpoint and we got out. As we watched, a group of farmers returning to the village approached the checkpoint and waited for the soldiers to examine their papers. The soldiers ignored them for a few minutes and then looked at their papers and waved them through. When the farmers on their tractor got to where we were standing, they cheered and smiled and shouted to our guide. He said they were telling us to come back every day—this was the fastest they had ever gotten through the checkpoint! Our American passports……making it easier for them to tend their own olive trees, halfway around the world? How can that be?

At lunch Dr. Latif’s wife told us the story of her brother, a professor teaching law at En-Najah University in Nablus, who is in prison. Of the 300 residents of Jayyous, 40 are in prison. The first time he was arrested they hired a lawyer and he was released after 64 days. He was home for 9 days and arrested again. This time it was "administrative detention." This means that they do not have to produce any case against him. They can hold him without cause as long as they like. He has been held for eleven months now. They have organized a letter-writing campaign, and Israeli peace activists are writing on his behalf. His name is Ghassan Khalid. We also learned that the day before, Israeli soldiers had killed two students in Nablus, shot them in their beds at En-Najah University. Soldiers, like the ones we saw at the checkpoint.

O Lord our God, your son Jesus read these words the first time he preached in the synagogue in Nazareth, his home town. Help us to tell this same good news in our home towns, freeing captives and prisoners, binding up the brokenhearted— victims ofthe fear, hatred and greed of the world. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Advent 2 - Week of December 7, Mark 1.1-8John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The wilderness east of Jerusalem looks much like the Western Slope of Colorado—dry, rocky hills with no visible vegetation until you get up close and see the gray-green sagebrush, land where only a goat could find sustenance. At higher elevations and in the ravines, a few scrappy-looking junipers cling to the rocky soil. There are few towns here, mostly small camps of Bedouin, with their goat-hair tents, corrugated metal sheds for the animals, a camel or two, a propane tank, a bright yellow generator, a water tank, blue plastic tarps, and a white plastic lawn chair or two, like the ones on my patio.

This is John’s wilderness, the land between Jerusalem and the Jordan River, where all he could find to eat were locusts and wild honey—bees and locusts, all that could live in this arid landscape.

As our bus wound its way down from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, I thought about Jesus spending forty days out here after his baptism, before he began his ministry, driven out here by the Spirit, and tempted by Satan. I thought, too, about the parable he told of the Samaritan, traveling this road and finding the man who had been beaten and robbed and left for dead. And I thought about John preaching in this desolate place, about his message—calling the people to “a baptism of repentance.” And somehow his message was heard as really good news, because we are told, “all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him.” Not a very inviting place to be teaching, not an easy place to get to, not a comfortable place—but something compelling about his message brought crowds of people to him. Something about his message of repentance? Freeing them? Liberating them? A place of testing?

Whatever their reasons, John’s message about repentance must have been what they needed. And I have found that it’s what I need, too, when I visit Israel and Palestine. The political situation there—the terrorist bombings of Israeli schoolchildren, the bulldozers plowing through crowds of shoppers in Jerusalem, the imprisonment of Palestinian children for throwing rocks, the young woman in labor who died at the checkpoint because she was not allowed to go to the hospital, the utter hopelessness of lives lived under occupation, at the whim of 18-19-year-old soldiers carrying Uzis—these are not isolated events on the far side of the globe. As a citizen of the United States, I have had a role in creating this world of chaos and fear.

It’s hard for me to visit with these people who are being oppressed because of my government’s unquestioning support of Israel. I would expect that people injured by rubber bullets fired from American-made weapons, supplied by my tax dollars, would resent my presence, or at least question me about how I can support such violence against them. But they never speak of this—their code of hospitality, which shapes the way they live and relate to the world, does not permit them to treat me poorly simply because of my complicity in their oppression. They welcome me, feed me, lavish me with attention and work to make my visits pleasant and comfortable.

But, like the crowds following John, I, too, need repentance. I need to confess my apathy in the face of their suffering, my ignorance of their history, the scant attention I pay to the news from Palestine, my lack of courage to confront my leaders with what I have seen and heard and insist on justice, and my willingness to let this situation drag on for sixty years, while I have lived in security and peace. So John’s message becomes a message of hope for me as well, and a call to turn from my apathy and fear to become a bearer of good news to those who suffer.

O Lord our God, merciful healer of the world, you call us to repentance. You call us to turn from our apathy and fear, to follow in your way of justice and peace. Forgive our indifference, our boredom with a troubled world, our ignorance. Straighten our paths so that we go out with courage to be your good news in the world. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

…in accordance with God’s promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by God at peace….

When she talks about her pastor, Mitri Raheb, Angie’s face lights up and her voice speeds up with excitement. As we tour the projects of the Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Angie tells us how he inspires her and their 200-member congregation to build a life of hope for their people. The school they built is called Dar al-Kalima, “house of the word.” Not a word on a page, she emphasizes, but the word become flesh, dwelling among us—not a passive word, but a living word, enfleshed in the people who follow Jesus’ call of discipleship. The school builds peace and understanding in the community as Muslim and Christian children study and play together.

The new two-year college offers two majors—art and documentary filmmaking. Their artwork and films document the lives of the Palestinian people, making them visible to the world. Through their art, they create a reality that transforms words of hope and promise into flesh and blood. They graduated their first class this spring.

The school, the wellness center, the guesthouse and restaurant and the International Center—all started by Pastor Mitri and the Lutheran Christmas Church—employ 100 people, the third largest employer in the city. When we visited in June, the art gallery exhibited paintings by an artist from Gaza. Somehow, through the blockade, his painting had managed to arrive in Bethlehem, going where the artist could not. Talk shows are broadcast from the auditorium, exploring topics like religious mixed marriages between Christians and Muslims. These conversations educate, heal and unite the community.When the land is occupied, Angie tells us, the people’s culture is also occupied. In the ceramics and glass, mosaics and silver olive leaf jewelry created by the artists at the International Center, Palestinian culture is preserved and celebrated. During the Intifada in 2002, the Israeli Army occupied the building for four days as they confronted armed militants in the Church of the Nativity, just down the street. The soldiers smashed computers and broke windows. After the troops withdrew, Pastor Mitri suggested that they collect all the broken glass and use it to make angels in stained glass—Christmas ornaments created from the rubble of the occupation.

While you are waiting for these things….While they wait for peace in their land and for justice to be done, the congregation of the Lutheran Christmas Church works for peace in their community, cut off from the world by the wall, but creating hope for the future in the hearts of Bethlehem’s people, especially the children, young people and women. Pastor Mitri articulates a vision that gives the young people of Bethlehem, like Angie, a sense of hope for their future through Bright Stars of Bethlehem, an after-school program offering music lessons, swimming lessons and other athletic activities, arts and crafts and celebrations of Arab culture. The children develop an awareness of their talents, confidence in their abilities and pride in their heritage—health for their bodies and hope for their future. While the occupation denies Palestinians the opportunity to travel, the schoolchildren of the Lutheran school can sometimes get permission to travel for a competition related to their studies. Their world, made small and terrifying by the occupation and the wall, is transformed by the experiences offered them through the ministries of the Lutheran Christmas Church.

Where in our community are lives of desperation transformed into lives of hope through the work of our congregation?

O Lord our God, gentle shepherd, of your people, guide us, the sheep of your fold. Take us to the places in our community in need of hope. Strengthen us for the work of healing the wounds of those who suffer. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Isaiah proclaims a promise: that Jerusalem has paid the penalty for her sins and God will come in glory, and the people will see it together—together….Israeli and Palestinian? God’s arms will gather the lambs…the Lord will gently lead the mother sheep. A consolation for the people of Bethlehem, a vision holding their hope for peace in a land long under siege. It’s been sixty years since the “Nakba,” the “catastrophe.” Sixty years of living under military rule, soldiers free to break into their homes at any time of the day or night, arresting their sons and daughters and hauling them off to prison, converting their homes to rubble with their bulldozers.

Today Bethlehem feels like a suburb of Jerusalem. Standing in the cafeteria of a kibbutz in Jerusalem we could see the hills of Bethlehem in the distance. It’s about a fifteen-minute drive from Jerusalem, but a world apart.

You can tell Israelis from Palestinians by their license plates—green for Palestinians and yellow for Israelis. Palestinian cars are not allowed in Israel and they are not allowed to drive on Israeli-only highways, even the ones in Palestine. In recent years, as Israelis have built more settlements in the West Bank, sandwiched between Arab towns, they have built a system of Israeli-only roads to get them safely to Jerusalem—modern, straight highways likethe one that tunnels under the Arab town of Beit Jala which sits on a hilltop. This highway is protected by a long wall, which prevents anyone from throwing rocks down on the cars below.

Highways for the Palestinians, however, are anything but straight. No matter where they travel, they must go in a circuitous route because they are never allowed to drive on any road near the Israeli settlements. On our last night in Israel we ate at a restaurant in Bethlehem. When it was time to leave, our tour bus drove up to the checkpoint. The soldiers would not let us through, even with our American passports. Bedil, our Palestinian driver, who lives in Israel in Cana and was an Israeli citizen, had picked up a box of tile for his bathroom and because of the tile, the soldiers would not let the bus leave Bethlehem.

As he turned the bus around, I sat there wondering where we were going to spend the night, and how we were going to get to our early morning flight, since our hotel was in Jerusalem. Bedil was unperturbed however, because he was a driver; he knew the roads and he knew all the routes to Jerusalem. The fifteen-minute ride to our hotel took us 45 minutes and many miles out of our way, but we finally arrived at another checkpoint. I’d been wondering how we were going to get through, but there was no need for worry—there were no soldiers here, only cement barricades to maneuver the bus around. Our driver and tour guide just shrugged—this is the way life is for Palestinians.

The Israelis say the wall is for security, to keep the terrorist bombers off their buses and away from their children. But this night, although we and our box of ceramic tile were turned away from one of the checkpoints, other checkpoints were left unguarded. What is the purpose of the checkpoints?

O Lord our God, gentle shepherd, of your people, speak tenderly to your servants who live daily in uncertainty and fear. As we go about our daily lives in comfort and security, make us ambassadors of your peace. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Friday, December 5, 2008

In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened…..Then the Son-of-Man will send out the angels…

Your kingdom come…..we often recite these words without thinking—it’s a good thing, because if we thought about what we are saying, we would choke on the words. What would it look like for God’s kingdom to come? Isaiah sees quaking mountains; Mark tells of darkening—no sun, no moon, no stars. Not tranquil, happy moments. God’s coming is cataclysmic, disrupting our comfort.

This chapter of Mark is apocalyptic literature, probably written during or shortly after the Jewish War and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem—a message of hope for a people who have lost everything. The Judeans were dispersed and a whole way of life grounded in temple ritual was lost.

This must have been much like the days Shadee described in 1948, when the Arabs in the villages around Bethlehem were routed out of their homes and forced from their lands by the soldiers, who were removing the Arabs for the establishment of the state of Israel. Standing on the rooftop of the community building of the Deheisheh Refugee Camp, he pointed to the nearby hills where his village had been. Shadee was not born then, but his family tells the stories of the soldiers coming into their village with tanks, rounding up all the people at gunpoint—first the men and then the women and children—and forcing them out of their houses and onto the road. They left behind their furniture and their dishes, grabbing only a bit of food and a coat—and making sure all the children were along. They locked their houses and took the keys, hoping that they would be able to return in a few days when the fighting was over.

They arrived in Bethlehem, but there was no room for them—so they camped on some farmland under the olive trees. Finally, because so many thousands of Arabs were homeless, tents were brought in to house the refugees. Residents of this camp came from 52 villages in the West Bank. In 1957 the U.N. built 10 x 10-foot cement dwellings for each family (for 10 people). About 120 people shared a restroom—Shadee told us this was especially hard for the women and he remembers waiting in line, holding a place for his mother.

Shadee is a volunteer with the Ibdaa Cultural Center, formed by Deheisheh residents to “provide a safe environment for the camp's children, youth, and women to develop a range of skills, creatively express themselves, and build leadership … while educating the international community about Palestinian refugees.” Shadee leads tour groups like ours and tells his story. Shadee has not always lived in the camp. He grew up in the Gulf states and in France, where he went to University. As a young man he returned to Deheisheh to claim his status as a refugee so that he can maintain his family’s claim to the lands they lost in 1948. The land has since been designated as parkland and they have never been permitted to return; he has never seen his village. We saw Ibdaa’s daycare and kindergarten, the women’s health center, and the library. We met with Inaz, a social worker who visits women in their homes and talks with them about their sons who are in jail, their husbands who have been killed by Israeli soldiers, of a daughter turned suicide bomber.

In this place, where the electricity is shut down at any time by Israeli soldiers shooting the transformer, where soldiers show up any time of day or night and tear apart your home, the people of Deheisheh resist the Israeli occupation of their land by making a safe place for their children and caring for their old women. God has promised that God’s reign—the world God envisioned in the creation—will come, even though we do not know the day or the hour.

O Lord our God, creator of the universe, you have promised us, your servants created in your image, that you will return in glory to bring peace to the earth. Let that peace begin with us. Your will be done. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus…

Advent is the season of preparation, but what should we do to get ready? How do we prepare for this gift God gives us at Christmas? This gift of God’s own self, come to us, just like one of us—not a powerful human king, not a superhero, but a tiny, squalling, diaper-dirtying baby. How do we prepare for this gift?

Hospitality is a highest Arab virtue. Above all else, even if the person in front of you is your enemy, you have a duty to welcome him or her. In Jerusalem’s Old Suq, the market, a shopkeeper you don’t even know will offer you tea, or a cold drink. Hospitality is a sign, not of the importance of your guest, but of the kind of person you are. And food is the gift.

When we arrived in Beit Jala, we were welcomed by Sami and Sousan and their daughters and son. They opened their home to us, a busload of hot, thirsty, weary travelers. They included us in the celebration of their daughter’s birthday with cake and candles. After lunch they took us on a tour and told us the story of their orchard.

Sami’s family’s farmland is on the outskirts of Beit Jala. When Sami had his elastic manufacturing business, the land lay untended—but the olive trees survived. Sami is not a farmer, but when his company went out of business because of Chinese competition a few years ago, he decided to start farming the land. You see, the Israeli government confiscates Palestinian land that is not being used; uncultivated farmland is deemed “abandoned” and turned into parkland or open space or used to build new Jewish settlements for Israelis. So Sami developed his land; he installed an irrigation system and planted fruit trees—apricots and apples—and vegetables as well. Shortly after all these improvements were made, the Israeli government decided to build their security wall on Sami’s farmland. The wall would protect the new Israeli settlement that is just over the top of the hill from the orchard. So, the bulldozers came and plowed up his olive trees. The wall sits today, still unfinished, no explanations offered, not protecting anything, but taking up one third of Sami’s orchard.

We spent that evening with Ipptysam and her family, who insisted we eat snacks and treats and then, after we were full, offered us supper. It didn’t matter that we were not hungry, however. It was too much, but refusing hospitality is an offense to your host. In fact, our Arab hosts trained us in the art of receiving hospitality by not letting us refuse them.

So, how do we prepare to receive a gift? Like my reaction to the salty snacks and Cokes, we may not even really want the gift God offers—God’s presence among us. So we prepare to receive it by practicing hospitality—welcoming all, with an abundance of food—not just our friends, but people we would not dream of associating with. Who can you feed today? Is there a food bank or a free meal in your community that you could help with this week? Buying canned goods and donating them to your local food bank will not work, because that does not include the human interaction of hospitality. Canned goods may be OK for Americans, but an Arab will spend the evening with you, ply you with food, take you on a tour of their farm and celebrate their birthdays with you.

In preparation for God’s coming, how can we practice hospitality?

O Lord our God, creator of the universe, you have planted your merciful grace in us, cultivated and watered it. In a world of fear, make us courageous bearers of your hospitality. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem, Amen.

Monday, December 1, 2008

“Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence—" Isaiah 64.1

He stood at the checkpoint in Bethlehem, wedged upright in the crush of 2500 bodies, clutching the papers he had to show to the soldier, knowing that if he dropped them, he would not be able to bend down to pick them up. He wondered, Did the soldier have his requisite two cups of coffee this morning? Had a fight with his wife last night set the tone for his day? Did he love or hate or fear this job guarding the entrance to Jerusalem, protecting her schoolchildren from bombs strapped to torsos or hidden in briefcases? As he stood in line this morning, Said’s job, his income, his children’s food and education, the roof over their heads, depended on this soldier’s mood this morning.

Said was fortunate. He had been a good student and he worked hard at the University of Bethlehem and received certification as a tour guide. He had applied for and received the documents he needed—permission to travel anywhere in Israel, 24/7, to guide tourists to the holy sites. He had made sure he renewed the papers every three months when they expired. I asked him what would happen if he forgot to renew them. He told me you don’t forget what your life depends on.

His college education had paid off and he had a good-paying job as a guide, knowledgeable and patient with Westerners who had spent too much time in high school flirting with the cute guy in the back row to pay much attention as the World History teacher lectured about the wars for land and oil in the Middle East. Each morning we were in Israel and Palestine, while we slept in a few more minutes, ate a leisurely breakfast in the hotel dining room, or strolled the early morning streets of Old City watching the shopkeepers opening up their stores, Said waited an hour and a half, pressed in the crowd making its way through this checkpoint.

For sixty years Said and other Palestinians have been waiting in line—waiting to go back to the homes they were forced to leave as their villages were shelled in 1948, waiting for a building permit to add a room to the house for the new baby, waiting for permission for their village to tap into the state’s electric grid, waiting for permission to use the water beneath their lands. At the Bethlehem checkpoint, as many as 2500 people wait in line each morning, wondering if this is the day they will be denied entry into Israel.

We were told that U.S. funds were appropriated to “humanize” the checkpoint in Bethlehem. With these funds, the Israelis put up a welcome banner, planted gardens, and built twelve stations for guards to process the people. This morning, and every morning, however, only two stations are open, two guards checking the identity papers for the 2500 people who come every morning.

If I were a Palestinian, herded like cattle through the checkpoint every morning on my way to work, I would, with Isaiah, cry out to God to intervene in such cataclysmic fashion, to “tear open the heavens and come down” to end the terror and injustice they live with daily. In these cries of lament from exiles returning from Babylon to the ruins of the holy city of Jerusalem, I hear Palestinian voices crying out to God to change the hearts of the world’s leaders, so that they can once again have freedom to travel and control over their lives, that they can determine their future and provide for their children’s health and well-being.

O Lord our God, creator of the universe, your people cry out to you for help. Make us instruments of your peace, remembering daily those who suffer injustice. Help us use our political influence to bring peace to their lives. In the name of your Son, the babe of Bethlehem,Amen.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

I invite you to join me --- This is the first in a series of meditations for your Advent devotions, reflecting on the weekly texts for Advent through my experiences on two trips to Israel and Palestine this summer and fall.Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us"....Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. (Luke 2.15-19)

The stories of Jesus’ birth are pilgrimage stories—Mary and Joseph walking the rocky hills and winding roads on their way to Bethlehem, the shepherds’ trek to the stable and the Holy Family’s flight along the coast to Egypt.

Today Bethlehem is in the West Bank, land designated by the Oslo Accord to be administered by the Palestinian Authority. But on my recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I saw that the reality on the ground is far different. Like Mary and Joseph, traveling pregnant from Nazareth to Bethlehem on the orders of the occupying Roman government, Palestinians’ lives today are shaped by the whims of the Israeli soldiers occupying their towns, guarding the checkpoints, controlling all movement. As I entered Bethlehem in June, 2008, I was shocked at the changes in the three years since my first visit. In the summer of 2005, when our bus arrived in Bethlehem, the Israeli security wall was being constructed. We saw the 30-foot high concrete barrier as it snaked around hills, cutting through Bethlehem’s olive groves, and, like a holiday parade, marching down the yellow line in the center of the main road into Bethlehem. That summer there were gaps in the wall, places where you could see through to the other side or walk around the wall….like the time we walked over a little hill to catch a bus into Jerusalem, avoiding the hassle at the checkpoint and the expense of two taxis.

When I returned in 2008, the Wall at the main entrance to Bethlehem was completed. There was a new checkpoint, with flower gardens and welcome banners proclaiming “Peace be with you.” Peace for the American tourists, with their blue passports, but not for the residents of Bethlehem. While our bus breezed through with a welcoming wave and a smile from the Israeli soldiers, Bethlehem residents stood in long lines to get to work. They must apply for permits weeks ahead of time, and only for a specific purpose. And, even if they are lucky enough to get a permit, they must wait, sometimes hours, every time they leave Bethlehem—daily for those who work in Jerusalem. We were told the beautification of the checkpoint came from USAID money, earmarked to make the checkpoints more “humane.” More humane for us perhaps, but not for the Palestinians on their way to work.

Today the wall divides the main road into Bethlehem, right down the middle—separating the houses on one side from their neighbors across the street. The stores selling olive wood nativity sets and religious jewelry are mostly closed now. Few tourists visit Bethlehem—they are told it is too dangerous. And no one wants to stop on this dreary street anymore, suffocating beneath the wall.

And Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart… These meditations were written for pondering during Advent, the time when we wait for a miracle—the birth of a savior for the whole world. Bethlehem today is in desperate need of salvation, but as they wait for their miracle, these faithful people of the Holy Land—in Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramallah—take God’s promises to heart and use their energy to create a new reality for themselves and their children, a world where children are educated, the sick are healed and all can celebrate their rich Arab culture.

As I read the weekly Sunday texts for Advent this year, I remember the land I walked on my pilgrimage and the amazing people I met. These are some of the stories I heard—stories of desperation and stories of hope from the Christians, Jews and Muslims living today on the holy land of Jesus’ birth.—Jan Miller, Advent, 2008

Monday, September 22, 2008

On Thursday, September 18, our last day in Israel and Palestine, I took a group of seven to Deheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. We walked to the bus station near the Damascus Gate and found the #21, which would take us to Beit Jala, near the camp. The Arab transit workers are very helpful -- telling us how much, making sure we are on the right bus. The bus was full of students and older people.

We were stopped at a flying checkpoint near Tantur, where the Hebron Road turns, just before you get to the checkpoint at Bethlehem. The soldiers made some of the people get off the bus, the ones who were standing in the aisles. The IDF soldiers got on and looked at our IDs. The older woman at the front of the bus did not get her ID out fast enough and the soldier jabbed her with his automatic rifle to hurry her up. Our group was sitting at the back of the bus and when the soldier saw our American passports, his expression changed. He gave us a big smile and said, "Oh, hello -- welcome!" Of all the passengers -- people who probably ride this bus every day -- they singled us out to be friendly. The other passengers just got gruff stares and disrespect.

On the way back, we were stopped at another flying checkpoint, just outside Beit Jala, about a hundred feet from the real checkpoint on Road 60. This time our driver had to show his permits and then get off the bus and wait by the police car parked at the side of the road. After about ten minutes of waiting on the bus, Don called out, "Does anyone speak English?" No, we were told. So we just had to wait, not knowing what was going on. Even if we spoke Arabic, we would not have known what was going on. There is no explanation. No one knows why the soldiers make people wait--it's simply because they can. They have the firepower.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

This has been an eventful pilgrimage, with many surprises, beginning with lost luggage. When Gale and I arrived with our group in Amman, Jordan, at 1 am, our bags and one other person's bags were nowhere to be found! Such is the nature of pilgrimage--meeting the unexpected, being flexible. For three days we had no luggage, washing out our clothes and wearing them every day. That will teach me to leave home without a change of clothes in my carry-on.

Next, we spent two nights in a tent camp in the desert at Wadi Rum, where Lawrence of Arabia rode with the Arab fighters. These were not the genteel tents I had expected - no light, no electricity, bathrooms at the other end of the camp - actually having no luggage was a benefit here and our clothes dried out quickly in the desert! We ate in traditional goat-hair Bedouin tents, hosted by the Bedouin families who live in the area.

The desert there is beautiful - red, orange, purple hues of the rocks, seen at dawn and sunset in different light. Hiking to the top of the nearby rock to watch the sunrise and the camels grazing below. Meeting the Bedouin dog who loved having his ears scratched just like his American cousins. Watching the young men doing their traditional Bedouin dances in the evenings around the fire after dinner -- not hard to see why the women put up with the flies, the goat-hair tents, the long black dresses and head coverings for these good-looking young men!

We've seen lots of rocks in the desert, on the mountains, in the valleys, in the fields, the Roman ruins and the rock-carved tombs and temples of Petra.

Then to the Galilee - beautiful calm waters - hot and humid, but easy to see why Jesus came here to relax and get away from the crowds. Very peaceful and quiet. The waters of the Sea of Galilee are great for swimming, just the right temperature, fish nibbling on your feet, refreshing after a long day of seeing churches, springs and more ruins. We visited the Mount of the Beattitudes, Capernaeum, the springs from which the Jordan River flows, Cana, Nazareth, and the Israeli towns replacing the Arab villages on the Golan Heights.

Today we waded in the Mediterranean at CaesareaMaritima, saw the Hippodrome and the Amphitheater, ate a Druze meal under the olive trees on Mt. Carmel and checked into our hotel in Bethlehem. Now for some sleep, something we travelers are not getting enough of.

I haven't had time to write - too much stimulation and not enough time to sit and relax. That will come later.....

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

This picture tells the story of commerce in Hebron--Palestinian shopkeepers' stalls shuttered and welded shut by the Israeli government, stars of David spray-painted on the closed doors, streets empty. In June, we visited a Hebron that had lost all its tourist visitors--the main market, Shuhada Street, closed by Israeli soldiers for the "safety," because Jewish settlers, who move into apartments above the Arab market, regularly attack and harass Palestinians and anyone shopping at their market stalls. One shopkeeper told me his goods have been ruined when the settlers poured bleach out of their windows above his stall.

Yesterday, Tim Franks of the BBC wrote in his Jerusalem Diary about the British government's plan to help tourism in Hebron. They invested $40,000 in the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee to fund horse-and-carriage rides through the Old City. However, the plan has not brought more tourists to Hebron and one carriage driver still waits to begin his business.

Carriage driver Said Ali Ahmed told him, "We got the permits from the Israelis to bring in the horse and the carriage into the Hebron area," he told me. "But we need an additional permit to move around. And I'm still waiting for the Israeli captain to give me it." So for weeks Said has waited, unable to drive his carriage because he cannot get the permit to move about in Hebron. He is confined to the streets open to Palestinians, which do not allow him to take tourists through the Old City. Read his story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7587828.stm#startcontent

Saturday, August 30, 2008

This email came today from Dr. Bill Dienst, who stayed in Gaza when the boats left to go back to Cypress (see Free Gaza boat flotilla information below or on their web site: www.freegaza.org). The 9 who stayed in Gaza are working to help more Gazans leave for medical and other reasons, to end the virtual imprisonment of Gazan citizens in their own country. This is news you won't likely see in the U.S. media - let me know if you do!

Bill is a Family and Emergency Room physician for Omak, a town in rural Washington in the northwestern United States. In 1985, after an intensive summer course in Arabic, Bill took an extra year of medical school, and spent a half year in Egypt, the West Bank and Gaza volunteering with various Palestinian healthcare organizations, initially with the Palestine Red Crescent Society headquartered in Egypt. He has been to Palestine on trips sponsored by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, by Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility to Israel/Palestine and with the Palestine Medical Relief Society. Here is his report:

Good Morning from Gaza City,The boats of SS Liberty and SS Free Gaza arrived safely in Larnaca Cyprus last night with some of the original passengers and 9 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip aboard.About 9 of our original international passengers stayed on in Gaza to do media and other work.Yesterday, British Journalist Lauren Booth and I attempted to exit via Eretz Crossing into Israel, accompanied by sick Palestinians needing specialty care not available in Gaza.The Israeli border guards threatened to shoot us, but we advanced slowly with our arms raised holding our passports up high; We advanced right through the tunnel right up to the iron gate, but the Israelis would not open it. The US and British Embassy's gave us the Royal run around and would not help us.So after a visit to Beit Hanoun to see the Al Athamna Family, who are still in a state of grief from the massacre of 19 members of their family by Israeli mortar shells 2 years ago, we headed back to Gaza City. So now we are waiting for the Egyptian authorities to let us out of Gaza through Rafah. They are under pressure from Israel to keep us trapped in here. Now I am getting a better appreciation of what it means to be a Palestinian from Gaza.I will keep you posted as best I can. It has been a grueling, but very worthwhile month.Love,Dr. Bill Dienst, Gazahttp://www.FreeGaza.org

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Today, Angela (see blog entry below for August 14) and all of the 42 human rights workers arrived in their two boats, Free Gaza and Liberty, greeted by hundreds of cheering Gazans.

From the FreeGaza Website: GAZA (23 August 2008) - Two small boats, the SS Free Gaza and the SS Liberty, successfully landed in Gaza early this evening, breaking the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. The boats were crewed by a determined group of international human rights workers from the Free Gaza Movement. They had spent two years organizing the effort, raising money by giving small presentations at churches, mosques, synagogues, and in the homes of family, friends, and supporters.

They left Cyprus on Thursday morning, sailing over 350 kilometers through choppy seas. They made the journey despite threats that the Israeli government would use force to stop them. They continued sailing although they lost almost all communications and navigation systems due to outside jamming by some unknown party. They arrived in Gaza to the cheers and joyful tears of hundreds of Palestinians who came out to the beaches to welcome them. Read more: http://www.freegaza.org/

Thursday, August 14, 2008

East Jerusalem is part of the West Bank, inside the Green Line, the boundary separating Palestinian and Israeli areas when the U.N. partitioned Palestine in 1947, the legal basis for the creation of the state of Israel. Although a formal peace agreement has never been adopted, many people view this boundary as a starting place for negotiating boundaries if there is to be a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

When we were in East Jerusalem, we took a tour with Angela, from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. Angela took our tour bus around East Jerusalem and showed us the places where Israelis are destroying Palestinian homes because they do not have building permits, while at the same building new apartment blocks and settlements for Israelis. She showed us the rubble of Palestinian homes within view of the new Israeli police station recently constructed in East Jerusalem. She showed us the new condominium development, Nof Zion, being built in the Silwan neighborhood, where Palestinian families have lived for hundreds of years. She told us this development is being marketed to American Jews because Israeli Jews would never want to live in the middle of this Arab neighborhood. Angela showed us where the Wall has cut off Palestinian East Jerusalem from the road to Jericho, a neighboring town now under the authority of the Palestinian Authority.

Angela also told us she was planning a civil action—breaching the blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza. This week Angela and other Israelis, Palestinians and internationals—human rights observers, aid workers and journalists—are taking a flotilla of boats to Gaza to draw the attention of the rest of the world to the impossible situation of the people living in Gaza, cut off from food, fuel and any way of making a living. Look for news of their action: www.freegaza.org or on the Palestine News Network: http://english.pnn.ps/index.php

The boat flotilla is one action marking the 60th anniversary of the “Nakba” the “catastrophe,” as Arabs describe the 1947-48 removal of Arabs from their villages, the destruction of those villages and the building of towns for Jewish migrants from around the world on those lands. Today, more than five million refuges still wait to return to these homes, a right guaranteed to them by international law, a right which has never been addressed in peace negotiations. But still, today, Arab homes are being demolished—one four-story apartment building in East Jerusalem on July 28.

When we were in Israel and Palestine, we met Angela, who took us on a tour of demolished Palestinian homes and new homes being built by Israelis in Arab areas of East Jerusalem (see today's previous post). She told us she would be participating in an international demonstration to breach the blockade in Gaza, to publicize the damage that Israel's blockade is doing to Gaza. The group purchased two boats and they have now set sail. On Wednesday I got an update from the group:

"By the time you read this, our two boats, the Free Gaza and SS Liberty should be sailing from Chania's old port in Crete despite a gloomy forecast of storms ahead. Our captains have decided it is time to quit our dock for security reasons and so we are heading along the Crete coastline on our way to pick up the rest of our passengers who have been waiting patiently in Cyprus. We could be in for a rough ride, but without going into too much detail, we probably are more at risk by not moving. Israel has a history of using Mossad and Kidon to sabotage and destroy peaceful operations designed to help or show solidarity towards Palestinians. From Crete we will head towards larnaca, Cyprus to pick up the rest of our group and then we are bound for Gaza to break the medieval siege imposed by Israel".......(read more on their web site: http://www.freegaza.org/ or subscribe to the listserve to get updated email news of their progress: https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/gazafriends

One of the participants in our Sabeel trip in June was Linda Mamoun, a freelance journalist, who, addition to having her articles published in The Nation, has a blog: http://newswhacker.blogspot.com/

She posted this story written by Mira Rizek, National General Secretary, YWCA of Palestine, as she witnessed the demolition of a neighbor's house:

Dear all,

Please read this and share with your colleagues and friends.

This morning, our family woke up to screaming voices at 4:00 a.m., and we started looking around and wondering what was happening, but we could not see anything. So we went up to the roof of the house (our house is 3 stories), and we saw tens of Israeli army, special troops, border police, ambulances, fire department cars, police cars, surrounding AbuEisheh’s house, who is our neighbor, ordering the family to leave the house because they wanted to demolish it. For almost two hours, the families who live there refused to leave, and soon they were pulled out by force, and some were beaten and had to be taken to the hospital.

For the last few months, this case of AbuEisheh has been in courts, and the family have taken the case to supreme court few weeks ago, but of course, as expected, lost the case. The Israeli government decided to demolish the house because it is “illegally” built. This is not the first Palestinian house to be demolished in East Jerusalem, and for sure won’t be the last. Hundreds of houses have been demolished. The claim is that they are built “illegally” when Israel continues to deny issuance of building permits to East Jerusalem Palestinian residents.

Most houses where settlements have been built, have been the target for demolishing. As you all know, the YWCA is also neighboring the Shim’on Essidiq tomb, claimed to be a very important Israeli site. The Israeli Government is now planning to build a settlement near the tomb, which will be 201 units, to fit around 1,000 Israeli settlers, evacuating 20 East Jerusalem Palestinian families that presently live in and around that area. The YWCA building is facing this area, and could be eventually at risk, or could end up facing the Israeli settlement if kept “alive”, and probably we will have to go through a thorough security system to be able to enter our premise.

Where on earth can this kind of thing happen? For those of us who forgot that East Jerusalem is occupied, I have tidings for you…..we will continue to suffer all this until the Occupation is over. But I also hope that there still will be Palestinians in East Jerusalem to celebrate the day when the Occupation is over. Until then we will continue watching the expropriation of houses, land, resources and rights and just document and report on these stories, because we as Palestinians and the rest of the World have proven that we can do nothing about this. Sadly, we don’t even have a shepherd to guard East Jerusalem.Until when will it continue, to be the case, that no one can stop Israel from violating international law on a daily basis? The International Court in the Hague confirmed that the building of what is called the “Separation Wall” is illegal, yet Israel is continuing with this Wall, and instituting a whole system of entrance permits. We even stopped talking about it, and pass though it every day. This is our new reality.

AbuEisheh’s apartment building is 4 floors, and there are 8 families living there (4 of the apartments are rented/sold to other families). All of them were evacuated by force this morning, and stood out in the street watching their own house being demolished in their own eyes. One of the residents in one of the apartments is even traveling abroad, so when they return, they will figure out the new living mode on the street. All the furniture, personal belongings, memories and valuables of all the residents are in there, and soon will be buried under the rabble of stones.This has been our story since 1948, and it looks this will continue to be our story until Israel and the rest of the world realizes that there can be no peace with house demolishing, with making people homeless, with land confiscations. As Palestinians living in Jerusalem, we continue to be “residents” and not citizens, and Israel has the right to terminate our residency right using different mechanisms, which they have been doing since 1967.......

The press and UN observers came to the neighboring houses, and the roof tops were filled with people taking pictures, filming and watching. At 9:00 a.m., the army came to all our neighbors, and our street and closed it off, and ordered all people on roof tops (including us) to leave threatening to shoot . Later, Palestinian politicians and representatives of the PNA and Islamic Awqaf came, and the army came rushing ordering them to leave. They closed off part o the main road (which links Jerusalem to Ramallah), and prohibited the press from covering the story. One of AbuEisheh’s sons was standing on the roof of our neighbor’s house, taking pictures of what he knew very well will become the “used to be his home”. I am not sure whether they or the rest of the residents of this house will have any roof to protect them tonight.

Usually, when the Palestinian receive notices for demolition, they are given the option of demolishing their own homes, which apparently the AbuEisheh family is refusing to do. If the Israelis complete the demolishing today, they will send the bill to the owners, who have to cover the cost of demolishing, patrolling of police and all other related expenses. So on top of becoming homeless, people have to cover the cost of injustice. The other option is that they will crack the foundations, which they have been doing for the last few hours, and give him few days to complete the demolishing......(read more....)

My mother was saying that she still remembers when she left her home in Jaffa in 1948, she thought it was for few hours and that they will return home. Well she and the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were never able to return to this date, and today the AbuEisheh family have been forced to leave their home, knowing they will have no house to return to. Every day we add more and more to the list of Palestinian refugees and homeless, and I wonder when will the day come when all these people will have the right to return??

Stories from Israel and Palestine...

from peacemakers on the ground, who are working to end the injustice of Israel’s occupation and bring peace to their land. Stories to help Americans, who, like me, have not understood what is really happening—in the words of one Jewish grandmother I met, "for my children and grandchildren."

A Lenten Geography, Meditations for Lent, 2014

As we prepare for Holy Week and Easter, join me in listening to the texts for the Sundays in Lent through the stories of the "living stones"—the Christians, Jews and Muslims living in the ancient land of Palestine who are working to bring the good news of peace to that land today. The lessons are from the Revised Common Lectionary.

About Me

When I first traveled to Israel and Palestine in June, 2005, with Pastor Paul Rowold, I met Israelis and Palestinians and heard their stories about how difficult their lives have become under Israel's occupation and I witnessed all the ways they are bringing hope to their communities.
When I asked what I could to, they told me "Tell our stories." They were convinced that if the American people knew what was happening to them, their lives would be different.
I returned to visit with Israeli and Palestinian peace groups in June, 2008, and I have been the co-leader for two pilgrimage groups to the Holy Land in 2008 and 2009. In May-June 2010, I traveled with a Compassionate Listening delegation. Again, the Palestinians and the Jewish Israelis I met asked me to tell their stories of despair and hope—and about their work to build their communities and create a future of hope for their children. I have made two more trips—in 2011 and again this past fall,2013, with Interfaith Peace-builders. In the picture above, I'm protesting the occupation of Palestine by standing with the Women in Black at one of Jerusalem's busiest intersections in June, 2008.